New Cushions

A while ago I was one of the lucky winners to win a kit to make a pillow from Seamstar. It took me another while to put my hands on it but I finally managed to make a lovely patchwork pillow with piping (wow!) and even a side concealed zipper (wow wow!!!).. The kit contained  6 charm squares in mostly green prints, matching binding and piping cord, a zipper, linen, batting… and instructions. After that, I made another one, using 6 red charm squares (see the poor beheaded birds…?).

 

 

 

I followed the instructions step by step, quilting it by hand  stitching inside the seams of every linen square. The piping was not difficult to make, but I’m not sure about having to stitch so many times… First you need to stitch along when you are making it by placing the cord inside it. Then, as the instructions said, you stitch it all around the front panel (with raw seams together), and then you stitch the front and back panel to finish the pillow. It is hard to hide one of the 2 first lines of stitching and that means they show a bit in some sections. But hey, it is my first time trying with piping…

 

For the red pillow, I used red DMC no.8  perle cotton thread and decided to cross each linen square. I was going to put the side concealed zipper too, but I changed my mind and decided to go for buttons. I had these big nice red buttons that seemed just perfect for it.

And because I ran out of linen and couldn’t bother waiting to get more, I went to the local fabric shop and found this nice rustic cotton with subtle Christmas print.

I quite like hand quilting with perle cotton and the only stash I had were 5 colours from DMC. The thing is that I know I will be hand quilting more often in the future and I wanted to have a nice stash of threads. I remembered reading in a quilter’s blog, sorry I can’t remember which one!, that she had found a great supplier of perle cotton thread in South America that would ship free internationally. I happened to find it, or at least I think it is the one she was probably talking about, since it offered quite a good deal on threads and at a very reasonable price.

While it might be difficult to find a specific colour that you may need, it is a great way to build up a good stash of it. It is not DMC but now that I’ve tried it I can say it is as good. It is made in Brazil and the brand is Rubi. You can buy a mix of colours and it includes lovely variegated ones.

 

These balls contain 40 metros, whereas the one on the right, DMC, contains 80metres. Yet, I bought 30 Rubi balls for €28.74, with free shipping, so that makes each ball at about €0.96. The average DMC 80m ball is about €2.50 (excluding shipping), so… I think you get a nice deal for a stash builder with Rubi! I will still buy DMC for specific colours if needed, but for now, I have a pretty good selection.

Weekend Sewing: Pillows

Hello!How are your winter months going? It’s been raining for ages here and we’re kind of fed up with this weather. Right now is VERY windy, as it can only get here on the tiny island (I don’t mean Ireland in general, I mean the tiny one where we live in). I can’t wait for spring to come and enjoy the light of the longer evenings, at least I’d be able to take better photos of my sewing.I have been sewing quite a lot recently. I made Hana another dress by drafting the pattern from a dress she already has and loves but that will soon be passed on. I had several custom orders as well, baby blankets, bibs… and I only need to cut the fabric for a baby quilt. Pics of all this will come soon, of course…

But this morning… well… I am determined to make my sewing room look prettier and organised, so I finally cut the fabric to make some covers for 3 pillows that I got in IKEA about… 2 years ago??? I know how to make pillow covers, it’s easy, but probably because it’s “that easy” I kept putting it off. I should thank Dana from Made to give me that kick and get that fabric cut. Made is one of the blogs I love following, I learn so much from her tutorials, she makes everything look really easy and I am so inspired after looking at all those great photos she has. Her new series of video tutorials are really good, so after watching the pillow tutorial I remembered I had that fabric and pillows waiting for me.

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Hola! Com us va aquest hivern? Aqui no ens para de ploure i ja n’estem ben tips. A mes fa un vent tant fort! Ja tinc ganes de que arribi la primavera, amb la llum i les tardes llargues. Al menys podre fer fotos mes maques del que estic cosint…

He fet bastantes coses. Un vestit nou per la Hana treient el patro d’un vestit que ja te i que li encanta pero que aviat ja no li entrara. Tambe he fet encarrecs, un parell de mantes, pitets i ara em falta tallar la roba per un quilt. Les fotos ja anirant venint!

Pero avui… avui m’he decidit a reemprendre la marxa per millorar el meu taller. Fa mil anys que vaig comprar tela i coixins a l’Ikea per fer unes coixineres. Es facil fer coixineres, pero com que es “tan facil” sempre ho deixava per mes tard. Suposo que he de donar gracies a la Dana de Made per donar-me aquesta patada al cul que necessitava i posar-me mans a l’obra per acabar de fer-les. M’agrada molt seguir el seu blog, aprenc moltissim amb els seu tutorials, sembla tot tan facil! I ara amb els video tutorials que te, encara mes! Despres de veure el dels coixins va ser quan  em vaig recordar dels meus.